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Details
LEYBOURN, William (1626-ca 1700). Cursus mathematicus. Mathematical Sciences, in Nine Books. London: Thomas Basset, Benjamin Tooke, Thomas Sawbridge, Awnsham and John Churchill, 1690.
2o (216 x 194 mm). Title printed in red and black. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Leybourn by R. White, 44 engraved plates (most folding). (Some occasional pale spotting, plate of the Tropical Projection smaller and laid in after 3G3.) Contemporary English panelled calf (some rubbing and light wear, a few repairs to spine). Provenance: R. Carleton (signature on rear endleaf); Hugh Cecil Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale (1857-1944), avid sportsman and bon vivant, he was the inspiration for the Lonsdale cigar size, and was part of a famous wager with John Pierpoint Morgan over whether a man could circumnavigate the globe and remain unidentified (bookplate; his sale, Sotheby's, 12 July 1937); Kenney Collection (book label).
FIRST EDITION. Leybourn was originally a printer, working with his brother Robert at Monkswell Street, Cripplegate. He gradually left that profession to become a "mathematical practitioner." Leybourn was one of the surveyors immediately appointed after the Great Fire and was a good friend of several astrologers: Vincent Wing, John Booker and John Gadbury who described him as "a facetious, pleasant, and cheerful disposition." His Cursus mathematicus built on numerous of his earlier works. The work deals with arithmetic, plane and solid geometry, the doctrine of primum mobile and spherical projection in astronomy, celestial and terrestrial cosmography, plane and spherical trigonometry. The work continues with practical mathematics, including surveying and fortification, navigation, dialling and astronomy. While he mentions the work of Kepler, he says nothing of Newton, whose Principia had been published three years earlier. Houzeau & Lancaster 9333; Taylor Mathematical Practitioners 480; Wing L-1911.
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FIRST EDITION. Leybourn was originally a printer, working with his brother Robert at Monkswell Street, Cripplegate. He gradually left that profession to become a "mathematical practitioner." Leybourn was one of the surveyors immediately appointed after the Great Fire and was a good friend of several astrologers: Vincent Wing, John Booker and John Gadbury who described him as "a facetious, pleasant, and cheerful disposition." His Cursus mathematicus built on numerous of his earlier works. The work deals with arithmetic, plane and solid geometry, the doctrine of primum mobile and spherical projection in astronomy, celestial and terrestrial cosmography, plane and spherical trigonometry. The work continues with practical mathematics, including surveying and fortification, navigation, dialling and astronomy. While he mentions the work of Kepler, he says nothing of Newton, whose Principia had been published three years earlier. Houzeau & Lancaster 9333; Taylor Mathematical Practitioners 480; Wing L-1911.